Convicted murderer admits killing Danish family

By CNN Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- A Danish-American man admitted on Wednesday that he had killed his Danish girlfriend and her two sons, but said it had been an accident.

In a court case that has shocked the nation, Peter Lundin, 28, changed his previous statements of innocence during a brief preliminary court hearing in the Danish city of Roedovre.

Lundin told the court that Marianne Pedersen, 36, and her children, aged 10 and 12, died during an argument sparked by Lundin's suspicions that Pedersen had an affair with another man.

As the row escalated, Pedersen's sons tried to defend their mother and jumped on Lundin's back and bit him. Lundin told the court he broke their necks.

Lundin, whose parents moved to the United States when he was still a child, grew up in North Carolina.

In 1992, he was found guilty of killing his mother and was given a 15 year prison sentence.

However, he was released after serving seven years due to prison overcrowding and was expelled by the U.S. authorities in 1999.

Four U.S. agents escorted him back to Denmark where, ironically, he was a free man again since he had not committed any crimes under Danish law.

It was then that he began a relationship with Pedersen, a prostitute.

The mother and her two sons disappeared on June 16 amid evidence suggesting that she and her children may have been murdered.

Suspicion immediately fell on Lundin after several witnesses said they had seen Lundin cleaning Pedersen's house in Roedovre in the days after her disappearance.

An axe with Pedersen's blood on it was later found at the house of Lundin's father.

Lundin, who is married and has a son, is now to undergo medical tests to decide whether he should be imprisoned or put in mental care.

No date for a formal trial has been set yet.

CNN Denmark

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